With New Freedom
by Ibarelywritefics
Summary: Weeks after obtaining his new freedom, Crow begins to wonder what his next step should be.
A new day, a new start, a new whatever it was called, Shinji was a lot happier to accept this. He would always try to wake up a bit early, but somehow always found himself awake after Crow.

"Really? It's like 7 in the morning." Shinji sighed, "You're already up making breakfast?"

"Someone's gotta make sure the kids get food. Pass me that bread over there. I need to toast it a bit."

Shinji walked over to counter and tossed the bag of bread to Crow, whom quickly began toasting it on a rather sad excuse for a skillet.

Watching Crow, Shinji let out a drag of a sigh. "I think I may go look around for some kind of work today."

Crow let out a snicker, "Oh come on, you? Working? You'd probably start some kind of rebellion against your boss if he wrote you up."

"Hey I'm being serious!" Shinji whined, "We could probably get something that paid enough for us to set this place up right."

Crow let on a small smile a bit, "I'm messing with you. I've been thinking of that myself too, but I dunno... My markings don't exactly make for a decent look."

"Please, anyone that takes five minutes to talk with you would know you're a good person. Better than me even!"

"Yeah, but still, getting the interview would be hard. Not to mention, who would watch the kids?"

Shinji thought for a moment, "I guess your right. Still, I don't like you being judged over some stupid marks you were forced to get for trying to help people."

Crow shrugged a bit and turned to a plate close by, "We can always think on that some more later. Go wake up the three up stairs, breakfast is almost done."

"Right right..." Shinji sighed and walked over to the sleeping area with the kids. The three of them were obviously close to each other, and it did make Shinji feel better that they could even have a chance to grow up in a world where they wouldn't be judged for being poor.

"Alright you three... Wake up." Shinji banged on the wall a bit, "Crow made breakfast and it's almost ready."

Amanda, Frank and Tanner all slowly began to rise up. Shinji walked over to their little make shift "closet' and pulled out some of their clothes. "We have got to replace these too..." He thought to himself while sighing. There was so much work to be done now that they could do things and Shinji honestly had no idea how to begin.

"Amanda, here's yours. You can go to the bathroom." Shinji said as he handed Amanda her clothes first, "Frank, your clothes are here." Shinji looked down at Tanner, "And Tanner, I'm helping you this time, you wore your shirt inside out almost all day yesterday."

After making sure the three of them were properly dressed, Shinji walked the three of them into the kitchen.

"Everyone gets one piece of toast and some juice." Crow sighed, "Hopefully we can find a way to start getting some more food choices around here."

"Hey Crow!" Tanner spoke out, "Can we go to the park again today? It was really fun over there! I wanna bring my deck today too!"

Crow chuckled a bit, "You really liked it over there didn't you?" Crow did recall Tanner watching some of the duels that the kids had going on at the park from yesterday. It was kind of nice to have a decent place for them to hang out that wasn't surrounded by trash and other shady people from the commons. "We'll see what we can manage today. I think Shinji had some plans today though."

After a quick breakfast, Shinji watched the kids brush their teeth what he groomed himself. "Actually brush your teeth, Frank. That toothpaste was hard to find."

"But it burns my tongue!" Frank whined.

"You'll get used to it. Promise."

Frank whined some more as he began to brush his teeth.

The three kids decided to walk around the neighborhood while Crow and Shinji left for the town. "We may not have been winners but surely being in that tournament could amount to some kind of facial value..." Crow said as he looked around.

"That tournament was nothing more than a set up." Shinji growled.

"I was just making a remark, and you go all frenzy mode..." Crow wanted to laugh at Shinji's reaction, but really, there wasn't much to laugh about. "I know you still hate them, but you got what you wanted, can't you give that confrontational attitude a rest?"

"It's not confrontational! It's perfectly honest!" Shinji retorted.

"Except for the part where you could really lose friends over this." Crow patted him on the shoulder, "I still haven't forgotten how you behaved during the tournament or with Yuya or just in general. You even began to accuse me of being with the Tops with your attitude, like I'm gonna forget who marked my face up."

There was a moment of silence between the two before Shinji turned around and sighed, "Okay, you're right. Maybe I got a bit out of hand." Shinji rubbed his neck, "But after all those years of sitting on that, you can understand me, right?"

"I do, and that's why I put up with it unfortunately." Crow grumbled. "Still, you made a bit of a show during the tournament. I wonder if anyone would even actually care to hire you..."

"What?! Are you saying I'm unhireable?!"

Crow didn't even hesitate to look Shinji dead in the eyes and nod his head.

Shinji sighed, "Great. We finally have our freedom and we don't even know what to do with it."

"It's only been like two weeks, Shinji." Crow reminded him, "You don't need to rush so much on this whole thing."

"Yeah, but I've been waiting my whole life for this and I want to make sure I'm somewhere safe before they change their mind!"

"Do you really think they'd do that?"

"It's the Tops, Crow. I don't trust them for anything."

"...Tell me about it." Crow muffled off. If there was one thing about Shinji that he really didn't need to be told... "Ah? Wait, over there... Is that Jack?"

"Hmm? Oh yeah, it is. I guess he's having lunch?" Shinji shrugged. "None of my business though. He's free to do whatever he wants just like we are."

Crow thought for a moment and looked over at Jack again. "I think I'm gonna talk with him a bit."

"Why? What do you have to even talk about with him?"

"I don't know..." Crow said, "I don't feel like I have anything to talk about with him, but something feels like it's pushing me over in that direction."

Shinji sighed, "Oh come on, a feeling doesn't mean anything."

"No, really..." Crow said, "Come on, just this once. He may even know of some people hiring around here or something."

Reluctantly, Shinji followed his friend over to the now former duel king.

"Hey... Uhh.. Jack..." Crow called out, "Uhh... How are you doing?"

Jack looked up and stared at Crow for a moment before looking down at his coffee again, "I'm doing fine. What do you want?"

"N-Nothing much..." Crow stalled out, "I mean, I just saw you and thought we could say hello since you know, we could probably know each other a bit better."

Jack gave his usual huff, "As if I have time for that."

Shinji flared up, "I agree, Crow. We're better than wasting our time on this guy."

"Now..." Crow stalled, "Maybe I'm being crazy but Jack really helped Yuya and the city out in the end there. I don't think he's as bad of a guy as we've been thinking... You know...I want to start off on a better foot."

Jack looked up and finally sighed, "You're still thinking about that, aren't you?"

Crow fell silent. "Yeah... I haven't heard anything from Sora or his other friend. I don't even know where they are right now."

Shinji also fell quiet, "So that story... It really happened?"

Jack finally gestured his hand and invited the two to sit down at his table, "It did. We don't have any answers on their current condition or where Roger landed."

"That dirty bastard..." Crow formed a fist with his hand, "When I get my hands on that guy..."

"Hey, leave some for me." Shinji calmed Crow down with his own anger.

"Aside from that, a few of them still remain here. With the Tops system being thrown out, they can move around a bit more freely, but I am not certain as to what they'll be doing." Jack thought to himself, "Reiji did not seem like the sort of person that will just drag anyone into whatever they are up to."

"Yeah, but they're our friends too!" Crow said, "I mean, they may not be from around here, but Yuya is a really nice person!"

Jack remained silent for a moment before taking a drink of his coffee and looking at Crow for a bit, "He does seem nice, but for someone like you to address it that way after your duel in the tournament."

Crow flinched with that memory. Yuya had seemed fine afterwards, so Crow mostly shrugged it off as something that the Tops had probably set up, but... Jack did have a point with that logic.

Shinji noted the silence, "Did I miss something?" he asked rather curiously.

"Well..." Crow tried to think of the best way to phrase what had happened. The truth is, Crow had no idea what happened at all, except he was dueling Yuya...but it wasn't Yuya? It was odd. "Yuya's personality became... really weird during our duel." he was almost a bit nervous to explain the premeditated plans they had made before the duel, but if he was going to trust Jack, he figured he should share a story with Jack just like how he would with Shinji. "We had planned to drive out our duel to a certain point, where Yuya could jump off and save his friends. He was ready to get disqualified from the tournament for them."

"Heh, my good fortune that he didn't." Jack snickered.

"It's not funny! Something happened at some point and I don't know what!" Crow took a breath and calmed down, "He was showing his usual smiling duel that he likes to show, but then... I don't he suddenly got aggressive. I thought maybe Shinji was right and that he worked for the Tops, but then... One look at Yuya's face and I knew something was wrong. Sora showed up and told me something about it, but it doesn't sound like he had too many answers either."

"So you don't know what caused it." Jack thought.

"I don't know. Do you think Roger did something to Yuya too?" Crow asked Jack hoping he would have some reasoning. Jack did watch the entire tournament.

"I don't think so." Jack thought on the topic, "It showed most obviously in his duel with you, but I am certain I saw it in a few of his other duels for a moment." Jack took another drink of his coffee as he looked at Shinji. "You can tell a man's personality by their dueling styles. There was times where his dueling would shift from his usual style."

Shinji and Crow looked at each other and back at Jack, "Okay... but I don't get it, did it show up in your duel?"

"Surprisingly, no." Jack confirmed, "I was curious to see if it would show up, but he remained true to his smiling duel philosophy the entire time."

Crow could only let out a sigh and tapped his head against the table, "I just really hope Yuya is going to be okay where ever he ended up."

"He will be fine." Jack confirmed, "He's the King. He needs to act like one."

Crow lifted his head up and stared at Jack, "You take that title seriously..."

Jack finished his coffee and looked at the two at his table,"But what are you two doing out in this place?" Jack finally noted, "I know you are free to come in and out as you please now, but it seems a little quick to find this small corner of town."

Shinji stiffened up, "We're looking for some kind of work, obviously."

"Work?" Jack perked his eyebrow up in curiosity.

"Well, I mean we can't just sit around and wait for news of Yuya and his friends to come around." Crow sat up, "I'm taking care of three kids myself, and honestly, Shinji is right, if we could get some kind of stability to take care of them, they won't have to resort to stealing and picking up other bad habits."

"Heh..." Jack laughed, "So this is your first action as a free man."

"Well, I mean... I don't see too many job opportunities for me." Crow sighed, "People still look at my face and wonder what I did."

"Nonsense!" Jack leaned back in his chair, "If there's one thing I know, people from the Commons are terrific engineers on their d-Wheels."

"That's because we can't afford to just buy a new one every time something goes wrong." Crow whined as he reflected on the hours upon hours he spent fixing his own D-Wheel.

"So then do that!" Jack exclaimed to the two of them. "Criminal marks bear no weight towards a duelist!"

"He makes it sound so easy..." Shinji snubbed at his words, "Even if we did do that, who would even come to us?"

"Excuses!" Jack slammed his fist on the table, "If you need word to get out, your dueling has already done it for you!"

"Do you mean at the tournament? But neither of us were winners..." Crow noted.

Jack sighed, "It doesn't mean you didn't show great excellence and courage. D-Wheels break all the time in Tops, I would know. Besides..." Jack leaned in, "You don't think they are done with this place, do you? We're going to need as many reliable duelist as we can get when they come back."

Crow thought for a moment. Jack was right. As little information as they had, it was easy to tell that whatever Yuya and his friends were in was slowly dragging itself over here. What they saw was only just the beginning. "...Right."

"Start something and I can send people your way." Jack said, "People still come to me since the new King is 'missing' suddenly. With your own connections to Yuya's friends and working on D-Wheels, you should know what would be needed."

"You sound like you've thought on this for a bit." Shinji added.

"No man goes into a duel unprepared! You must be ready at any second!"

"...You have some really weird standards." Crow noted.

"Well, I mean we have some degree of work to do now." Shinji added, "But that Jack guy still pisses me off."

"I dunno, I think he's just a little different from us, but still a good guy." Crow defended Jack.

"You think so?"

"Yeah..." Crow thought out loud, "Who knows? Maybe in another universe or something we could be really good friends."

"Are you saying there's another you out there? Now you're sounding crazy..."

"With everything that's going on, I might be..." Crow whined.

"Still, if you're going to fight, I'm going with you!" Shinji changed the subject, "I don't like the idea of you going out and fighting by yourself."

"No... Shinji..." Crow sighed out, "Listen, I knew this conversation was gonna come up, and I've already made up my mind. I need you to stay here."

"What?!" Shinji looked offended, "But Crow, we need to work together! Nothing big is ever done by itself and-"

"Yeah yeah, I know your whole 'come together' logic is still standing, but hear me out for a second, okay?" Crow put his hand on Shinji's shoulder, "I got involved with this the second I went after Roger. I can't back down now. But this is dangerous. If something happens to me on this, I want to trust you to look after Amanda, Frank and Tanner."

"But-!"

"Shinji. Just promise me you can do this. I'm not going to trust them to anyone else. They're too important for me to just trust anyone with them."

Shinji was quiet and let out a big sigh, "Fine... Fine... but if ANYTHING happens to you, don't think I'm gonna take it sitting down."

"You wouldn't be Shinji if you did." Crow laughed in relief. "But still, thanks. Just knowing that they'll be taken care of is a huge weight off my shoulders."

"I already take care of them when I come over anyway. I gave them my old room even."

"I recall... and then you moved down to that one complex where..."

"Don't remind me..." Shinji's face turned pale. "All I can say is that it's better the kids are in a safe home like that than out on the streets."

"Maybe we can expand the place a bit." Crow thought, "I mean, we're gonna need to move our stuff to a bigger place to work on other d-wheels, so that opens up the yard a bit."

"Let's worry about that down the line, I think I'll be fine for now." Shinji shrugged, "Still I'm helping you out because I can right now."

"That's fine." Crow smiled, "I'm happy to get help from you most of the time."

"Most?" Shinji looked offended at the word.

"Sometimes you get in over your head..." Crow laughed. Yeah, he had a lot of work and preparation ahead of him with little to no answers or directional sense, but it was a good step forward for something that he felt like he could believe in. He had his friends with him, new and old, and honestly, for the first time, despite all the dangers ahead in the future, it looked just a bit brighter to him.


End file.
